Recall the times when you’re playing some police-catch-thief game after school or during school breaks. The rules are simple, so simple that the name of the game probably suggest quite a bit about the content of the game.
Police-catch-thief or police-and-thief or whatever name you once called it is just a “catching” game. Basically, someone (the policeman) would be “the catcher” or more correctly – the pursuer or hunter. The thieves are the people being pursued, I wonder why aren’t they known as “the caught”. Anyhow, the policeman suppose to chase the thieves and the winner is always the policeman and the loser is always the thieves.
Like fairy tales, the good guys emerge the winners. But then, you and I know that that isn’t always the case but hush hush, don’t tell the kids. I never like the game. It is not that I am too mature for that game in the past; it’s just because I can’t run. I mean I can run – but slow. Too slow. I can’t be a thief I tell myself. At least that is a good lesson learnt, I will not be a thief in future.
What about the policeman? I don’t mind being the policeman. While I may not be able to catch anyone, I am never the loser. That is the failure of the police-catch-thief game. I want to be the policeman. I can’t chase after the faster kids, but I won’t get chased after too. What a discouraging and practical mentality for a primary school kid, isn’t it?
I told myself I do not want to be a thief. However, I could be a policeman, but I just won’t catch the thief. After which I grinned, thinking I am in a win-win situation.
Today, the game is probably still there. The complexity of the game probably increased. Just the other day I saw some girls outside Princess Elizabeth Primary School. They were playing some sort of a police-catch-thief game. They seemed to have re-branded, repackaged, redefined the rules too. [Our dear Singapore government encourages creativity among the people.]
“Pichu! Pichu!” the girls would call as they run and chase each other around. Pichu?! Speaking of inventive. I hope they don’t infringe Nintendo’s trademarks.
[Pichu is the form before Pikachu; it is a small electric mouse that doesn't look like a mouse. It feeds on berries and stuff, sometimes eats onigiri too. Pikachu is the evolved form of Pichu. Raichu is the next evolution stage. They are all mice that doesn't look like mice, I suspect they escape from biotechnology facilities.]
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